BIRD LEGEND AND LIFE 



The woodpecker is said to laugh before rain because the 

 insects on which it feeds come out of their hiding places at 

 that time. 



In Germany a woodpecker flying to the right was an 

 omen of good fortune. 



Because of his blood-red coat and fiery eye the woodpecker 

 is known in mythology as the bird of Mars. 



Because his name was too sacred to use, the Greeks 

 spoke of the woodpecker as the "tree chiseller" or "hewer 

 with an ax.* 



In German legends we are told that the woodpecker 

 knows where grows the magic Springwurzel, the herb which 

 will enable the possessor to open the closed doors of moun- 

 tain rocks ; to enter and bear away the treasures of the Venus- 

 berg. Pliny also tells of the woodpecker bringing the spring- 

 wort. 



The Italians worshiped in the woodpecker the great 

 god Picus, and the Esthonians their rain and thimder god, 

 Pikne or Pikker. In 1644 Johann Gutsloff noted the prayer 

 of the old Esthonian farmer: "Beloved Piker, we will 

 sacrifice to thee an ox with two horns and four hoofs, and 

 want to beg you as to our ploughing and sowing that our 

 straw shall be red as copper and our grain as yellow as 

 gold. Send elsewhither all black, thick clouds over great 

 swamps, high woods and wide wastes. But give to us plough- 

 men and sowers a fertile season and sweet rain." 



